Do high doses of marijuana impair short-term memory and tasks requiring multiple steps?

Do high doses of marijuana impair short-term memory and tasks requiring multiple steps?

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Not sure
• D. Sometimes

Answer: (A)

High doses of marijuana disrupt the ability to hold and manipulate information in working memory, and this becomes especially evident when a task has multiple steps. The key player is THC, which binds to CB1 receptors in brain regions like the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex that are essential for forming new memories and for planning and executing sequences. When THC levels are high, encoding new information and keeping several pieces of information in mind at once become harder, so people may struggle to remember instructions, follow multi-step plans, or juggle several task components in real time. This impairment tends to scale with dose and is typically temporary, occurring during intoxication and fading as the drug wears off. Given this, the statement is true: high doses can impair short-term memory and tasks requiring multiple steps.

High doses of marijuana disrupt the ability to hold and manipulate information in working memory, and this becomes especially evident when a task has multiple steps. The key player is THC, which binds to CB1 receptors in brain regions like the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex that are essential for forming new memories and for planning and executing sequences. When THC levels are high, encoding new information and keeping several pieces of information in mind at once become harder, so people may struggle to remember instructions, follow multi-step plans, or juggle several task components in real time. This impairment tends to scale with dose and is typically temporary, occurring during intoxication and fading as the drug wears off. Given this, the statement is true: high doses can impair short-term memory and tasks requiring multiple steps.